A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The safety of the flying public and the reliability of the nation's aircraft depend, in part, on the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) regulation and certification of the aviation industry. FAA delegates the vast majority of its safety certification activities to about 13,600 private persons and organizations, known as "designees," which are currently grouped into 18 different programs. Among other tasks, designees perform physical examinations to ensure that pilots are medically fit to fly and examine the airworthiness of aircraft. GAO reviewed (1) the strengths of FAA's designee programs, (2) the weaknesses of those programs and factors contributing to those weaknesses, and (3) potential improvements to the programs."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Chairmen of the Senate and House Committees on the Judiciary asked GAO to determine (1) the extent of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' compliance with the requirements of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993, (2) what federal oversight is provided to the Commission, and (3) the status of the implementation of recommendations from GAO's past reviews of the Commission."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Concerns were raised about the current system Medicare uses to determine annual changes to physician fees--the sustainable growth rate (SGR) system--when fees were reduced by 5.4 percent in 2002. Subsequent administrative and legislative actions modified or overrode the SGR system, resulting in fee increases for 2003, 2004, and 2005. However, projected fee reductions for 2006-2012 have raised new concerns about the SGR system. Policymakers are considering whether to eliminate spending targets or modify them. The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) required that GAO study SGR and potential alternatives to the system. This report examines (1) how the SGR system is designed to control spending for physician services, (2) what concerns have been raised about the SGR system and its components, (3) what affects the stability and predictability of physician fee updates under the SGR system, and (4) what alternatives to the current SGR system exist. GAO reviewed relevant laws and regulations and interviewed officials and organizations representing physicians. On the basis of this information, GAO identified potential alternatives to the SGR system and requested illustrative simulations of fee updates and spending …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) had five interior (non-border-related) immigration enforcement objectives to address federal immigration law violations: identify and remove criminal aliens from the United States; deter and dismantle alien trafficking and smuggling; respond to community reports and complaints about illegal immigration; minimize immigration benefit fraud; and block employers' access to undocumented workers. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the INS and other federal agencies began merging their law enforcement functions into the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within the Department of Homeland Security. Congress sought information on how the newly formed ICE was addressing legacy INS's immigration enforcement objectives. GAO addressed the following questions: (1) What is the status of ICE's efforts to incorporate legacy INS's interior immigration enforcement objectives? (2) How is ICE developing budget needs, workforce plans, and performance measures for immigration-related objectives?"

In this paper defects formed in p-doped GaN:Mg grown with Ga polarity will be discussed. The atomic structure of these characteristic defects (Mg-rich hexagonal pyramids and truncated pyramids) in bulk and thin GaN:Mg films grown with Ga polarity was determined at atomic resolution by direct reconstruction of the scattered electron wave in a transmission electron microscope. Small cavities were present inside the defects. The inside walls of the cavities were covered by GaN which grew with reverse polarity compared to the matrix. It was proposed that lateral overgrowth of the cavities restores matrix polarity on the defect base. Exchange of Ga and N sublattices within the defect compared to the matrix lead to a 0.6 {+-} 0.2 {angstrom} displacement between the Ga sublattices of these two areas. A [1{und 1}00]/3 shift with change from AB stacking in the matrix to BC within the entire pyramid is observed

Letter from Eleanor Brown to Elaine discussing her volunteer activities, recent travel, and other news.

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The accuracy in the measurement of the masses of sleptons and heavy Higgs bosons in cMSSM scenarios, compatible with the WMAP result on cold dark matter, has been re-analysed in view of the requirements for predicting this density to a few percent level from SUSY measurements at the linear collider.

We have fabricated by sputtering and characterized a set of step-graded Cu-doped Be capsules. The capsules were made with Cu doped layers of about 0.35 and 0.70 atom % Cu. The total thickness of the coating is about 100 {micro}m. Capsules were removed from the coater for characterization after each layer was deposited. Our ability to produce doped layers is confirmed, and our ability to control the level of doping is excellent. A variety of characterization techniques, both destructive and non-destructive were explored. The surface finish of the sample capsules removed after each layer progressively got rougher, it is likely that polishing will be necessary to produce capsules that will meet surface specifications. We have learned a great deal from this first effort, both in terms of coating technology and capsule characterization. We are now implementing several changes in the coating system based in part upon our experience with this first effort. The next graded capsule run should begin near the end of October.

Weekly newspaper from Clifton, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

This report is an updated analysis of water-level data performed to provide the ''Saturated Zone Site-Scale Flow Model'' (BSC 2004 [DIRS 170037]) (referred to as the saturated zone (SZ) site-scale flow model or site-scale SZ flow model in this report) with the configuration of the potentiometric surface, target water-level data, and hydraulic gradients for calibration of groundwater flow models. This report also contains an expanded discussion of uncertainty in the potentiometric-surface map. The analysis of the potentiometric data presented in Revision 00 of this report (USGS 2001 [DIRS 154625]) provides the configuration of the potentiometric surface, target heads, and hydraulic gradients for the calibration of the SZ site-scale flow model (BSC 2004 [DIRS 170037]). Revision 01 of this report (USGS 2004 [DIRS 168473]) used updated water-level data for selected wells through the year 2000 as the basis for estimating water-level altitudes and the potentiometric surface in the SZ site-scale flow and transport model domain based on an alternative interpretation of perched water conditions. That revision developed computer files containing: Water-level data within the model area (DTN: GS010908312332.002); A table of known vertical head differences (DTN: GS010908312332.003); and A potentiometric-surface map (DTN: GS010608312332.001) using an alternative concept from that presented by …

The purpose of this analysis, as directed by ''Technical Work Plan for: Regulatory Integration Modeling and Analysis of the Waste Form and Waste Package'' (BSC 2004 [DIRS 171583]), is to compile applicable corrosion data from the literature (journal articles, engineering documents, materials handbooks, or standards, and national laboratory reports), evaluate the quality of these data, and use these to perform statistical analyses and distributions for aqueous corrosion rates of waste package materials. The purpose of this report is not to describe the performance of engineered barriers for the TSPA-LA. Instead, the analysis provides simple statistics on aqueous corrosion rates of steels and alloys. These rates are limited by various aqueous parameters such as temperature (up to 100 C), water type (i.e., fresh versus saline), and pH. Corrosion data of materials at pH extremes (below 4 and above 9) are not included in this analysis, as materials commonly display different corrosion behaviors under these conditions. The exception is highly corrosion-resistant materials (Inconel Alloys) for which rate data from corrosion tests at a pH of approximately 3 were included. The waste package materials investigated are those from the long and short 5-DHLW waste packages, 2-MCO/2-DHLW waste package, and the 21-PWR commercial waste …

The research project proposed to synthesize new metal complexes with sulfido, disulfido and other types of reactive sulfur ligands, and to explore the joint reactivity of metal and sulfur ligands with hydrogen and organic molecules. The overall objective was to investigate reaction pathways relevant to those observed for the heterogeneous metal sulfide catalysts which promote hydrogen activation, hydrogenation-dehydrogenation of organic substrates, and hydrogenolysis of carbon-heteroatom bonds. Particular emphasis was placed on CpRe derivatives (where Cp might be C5H5 or alkylated versions) so that comparisons could be made with the previously studied CpMo complexes, which showed extensive reactivity at the sulfur ligands. Heterogeneous rhenium sulfides generally show higher catalytic activity than molybdenum sulfides, and this is attributed, in part, to the weaker Re-S bond strength, relative to the moybdenum-sulfur bond. In our studies of discrete Re-sulfide complexes, we have also observed evidence for weaker Re-S bonds relative to the molybdenum systems. In addition we have characterized novel hydrogen activation by rhenium sulfido complexes, as well as carbon-hydrogen, carbon-sulfur and metal sulfur bond cleavage reactions. Hydrogen Activation. The complex Cp{prime}ReCl2S3 was synthesized in ca 70% yield and characterized by an X-ray diffraction study which confirms that the complex contains a {eta}2-trisulfide ligand. …

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Dell City, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Daily student newspaper from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

This report presents summary information on the requests and congressional action for supplemental disaster relief funding for FY2004.

Age-related deterioration of the fracture properties of bone, coupled with increased life expectancy, are responsible for increasing incidence of bone fracture in the elderly, and hence, an understanding of how its fracture properties degrade with age is essential. The present study describes ex vivo fracture experiments to quantitatively assess the effect of aging on the fracture toughness properties of human cortical bone in the longitudinal direction. Because cortical bone exhibits rising crack-growth resistance with crack extension, unlike most previous studies the toughness is evaluated in terms of resistance-curve (R-curve) behavior, measured for bone taken from wide range of age groups (34-99 years). Using this approach, both the ex vivo crack-initiation and crack-growth toughness are determined and are found to deteriorate with age; the initiation toughness decreases some 40% over six decades from 40 to 100 years, while the growth toughness is effectively eliminated over the same age range. The reduction in crack-growth toughness is considered to be associated primarily with a degradation in the degree of extrinsic toughening, in particular involving crack bridging in the wake of the crack.

This report discusses the issues for the defense authorization conference, issue for congress, legislation and some additional readings.

After more than 40 years of operation, the AGS is still at the heart of the Brookhaven hadron accelerator complex. This system of accelerators presently comprises a 200 MeV linac for the pre-acceleration of high intensity and polarized protons, two Tandem Van der Graaffs for the pre-acceleration of heavy ion beams, a versatile Booster that allows for efficient injection of all three types of beams into the AGS and, most recently, the two RHIC collider rings that produce high luminosity heavy ion and polarized proton collisions. For several years now, the AGS has held the world intensity record with more than 7 x 10{sup 13} protons accelerated in a single pulse. The requirements for the proton beam for the super neutrino beam are summarized and a schematic of the upgraded AGS is shown. Since the present number of protons per fill is already close to the required number, the upgrade is based on increasing the repetition rate and reducing beam losses (to avoid excessive shielding requirements and to maintain activation of the machine components at workable level). It is also important to preserve all the present capabilities of the AGS, in particular its role as injector to RHIC. The AGS …

We describe a new method for quantifying the orientation of trabecular bone from three-dimensional images. Trabecular lattices from five human vertebrae were decomposed into individual trabecular elements, and the orientation, mass, and thickness of each element were recorded. Continuous functions that described the total mass (M({var_phi},{theta})) and mean thickness ({tau}({var_phi},{theta})) of all trabeculae as a function of orientation were derived. The results were compared with experimental measurements of the elastic modulus in the three principal anatomic directions. A power law scaling relationship between the anisotropies in mass and elastic modulus was observed; the scaling exponent was 1.41 (R{sup 2} = 0.88). As expected, the preponderance of trabecular mass was oriented along the cranial-caudal direction; on average, there was 3.4 times more mass oriented vertically than horizontally. Moreover, the vertical trabeculae were 30% thicker, on average, than the horizontal trabeculae. The vertical trabecular thickness was inversely related to the connectivity (R{sup 2} = 0.70; p = 0.07), suggesting a possible organization into either few, thick trabeculae or many thin trabeculae. The method, which accounts for the mechanical connectedness of the lattice, provides a rapid way to both visualize and quantify the three-dimensional organization of trabecular bone.

The Sub-Picosecond Pulse Source (SPPS) at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) produces the brightest ultrafast x-ray pulses in the world, and is the first to employ compressed femtosecond electron bunches for the x-ray source. Both SPPS and future X-ray Free Electron Lasers (XFEL's) will use precise measurements of individual electron bunches to time the arrival of x-ray pulses for time-resolved experiments. At SPPS we use electro-optic sampling (EOS) to perform these measurements. Here we present the first results using this method. An ultrafast laser pulse (135 fs) passes through an electro-optic crystal adjacent to the electron beam. The refractive index of the crystal is distorted by the strong electromagnetic fields of the ultra-relativistic electrons, and this transient birefringence is imprinted on the laser polarization. A polarizer decodes this signal, producing a time-dependent image of the compressed electron bunch. Our measurements yield the relative timing between an ultrafast optical laser and an ultrafast x-ray pulse to within 60 fs, making it possible to use the SPPS to observe atomic-scale ultrafast dynamics initiated by laser-matter interaction.

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